10 Bold Predictions For Wrestling In 2021
3. The Next Major WWE To AEW Jump IS...
Sami Zayn has enjoyed (professionally) a year every pundit got wrong.
Prior to the pandemic, WWE saw some value in him - he was a featured supporting player with direction - but at Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania, he was treated as more pissant than pro wrestler. The glimpse fans caught of Sami Zayn Vs. Daniel Bryan was tremendous, but it was just that: his weasel character informed the sort of carny anticlimax with which WWE has earned such a sh*tty reputation over the years. Zayn then voluntarily took time off under the promise he'd face no reprisal.
Shockingly, he didn't; when he returned, he did so as a key player on the resurgent SmackDown and graduated TV-time wise to "great, lengthy matches with f*ck finishes", which while suboptimal is about as good as it gets on main roster programming.
So what gives? Why didn't WWE, a not nice company, punish Sami Zayn, a performer they never much liked, for what they were bound to perceive as insolence? Is it because Vince actually values a set of balls, and realised that he is lucky to have such a valuable player on the books?
Or is it because Zayn's contract expires next year, per the hard graft put into Fightful's database, and he might be drawn to AEW?
Zayn goes way back with the Elite; his PWG wars with the Young Bucks are legendary, and he once praised Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi's 2012 DDT masterclass as the greatest match he'd ever seen live. A deep respect exists between both sides. Moreover, Zayn never seemed a true fit with WWE; they can't book babyfaces, he's a folk hero, and he's diametrically opposed to WWE philosophically.
The return of El Generico represents one of pro wrestling's last great return pops, and the notorious perfectionist would thrive on a platform that values expression as a core principle.